[Music]
we didn't start with a grand
all-encompassing plan for world
domination
I simply invited my friends to the park
because I was a bit lonely I had no idea
that other people's lives would be
affected by this little seed that I
planted for what started as an excuse to
be with my friends at a time when I
rarely needed them close to have become
a global phenomenon will always be
extraordinary to a South African
computer programmer who liked to run I
will never be perfect comfortable with
personal accolades that I'm given but
over time I've got used to the idea that
parkrun is something special that this
event I created mostly for my own health
and happiness has become a movement that
has had such a positive impact on so
many people's lives it's not uncommon
for someone to tell me that Park run for
them has been the difference between
living and dying literally but I've not
done this alone I would not be here
tonight without the contribution of
countless others at the heart of my
story and of parkrun story is something
that I firmly believe in that people are
good time and time again over the last
15 years I've been overwhelmed by the
powerful displays of the human spirit as
people have come together on Saturday
and Sunday mornings sharing our
wonderful parks and open spaces and
being active together I was going
through a difficult time in my life and
running was the constant that kept my
head above water and suddenly thanks to
an injury I couldn't do it anymore what
I knew in 2004 was that I personally had
a need to be active to be outdoors and
to be social what I didn't know was that
so did everybody else like most great
things in life Park Run is a very simple
concept free weekly community led
socially focused events where you can
walk jog run volunteer or spectate we
used the timed run as a hook to get
people involved but it was never really
about that absolutely anyone is welcome
to participate in some way and it's not
unusual to see four generations of the
same family all taking part on the same
day park run brings people together in a
way to often overlooked by modern
society and in a way that empowers the
most wonderful aspects of the human
spirit it offers everyone the
opportunity to involve themselves in
something positive constructive and
joyful to be part of their community and
to contribute to the health and
happiness of their fellow humans in an
ever more frantic and lonely world
thousands of families every week used
their local park runn to spend time
together leaving the stresses of
everyday life behind and reconnecting
with loved ones and all of this happens
every single week in a park local to you
from what started out 15 years ago as
eighteen friends met in a park thirteen
runners and five volunteers we expect
that by the end of this year over 4
million different people will have
walked job to run or volunteered over 60
million times at 2,000 parks and open
spaces across 21 countries it was
several years ago when I realized that
in order to achieve our dream we would
need to become a single global family
bound together by a common desire to
make the world healthier and happier
importantly also at that time I realized
that our wonderful community had
outgrown my capabilities and if we were
going to succeed we would need the
leadership of someone with an
exceptional balance of skills and
experience when in May 2015 I appointed
Nick Pearson as our CEO I removed myself
from the day-to-day running of the organ
this was possibly the most challenging
moment of my life
as parkrun was only 11 years old and it
felt like my own child this thing that I
had nurtured for 11 years seemed grow up
through good times and bad needed to
take the next steps
I found it desperately hard to accept
that parkrun could and should run
without me but the more and more I
thought about it the more I realized it
was the only option today we have 43
staff all around the world still an
incredibly small team given the level of
impact that parkrun delivers and a team
that I'm immensely proud to call
colleagues and friends but it's no
longer me that leads that team great
movements on trajectories to change the
world are so often brought down by their
founders who hang on too long
suffocating the spirit of their creation
in my case I recognized that the skill
set I possessed which was so critical to
creating parkrun and guiding it through
it the turbulent times of our first 10
years was not the same skill set
required to match the completely
different set of challenges faced by a
global movement with many millions of
members under next leadership parkrun
has achieved so many of my dreams in
ways I could never have imagined and
it's wonderful to speak to fellow Park
runners people always want to thank me
and say walk run did this park and
improved my health parkland helped me
find friends or feel part of a community
and that's wonderful but rarely they did
it every decision they made they took
themselves they just needed the
opportunity as I've already said and at
the heart of my story and of parkrun
story there is something that I firmly
believe in people are good
[Applause]
[Music]